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Full Metal Challenge
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Posted by: Otto

Just creating a discussion thread to get the ball rolling. Info I currently know of:

Premire: Oct. 20th, 10 pm. Should be in the Tivo's guide data by Tuesday or Wednesday.
Webpage: http://www.ultimatemachinecombat.com/

The games page on the website is worth checking out. Looks to be very cool. :D

Posted by: Robs67

Anyone know if this is a TLC program?

Posted by: Stevelemo

Definitely looks cool!
Looks like it's on TLC following Junk Yard Wars.

Thanks for the tip.

Steve

Posted by: thehepcat

this show is why Cathy isn't on Junkyard Wars this season....but given the new hosts of that....hopefully after this show gets up and running, she'll be able to do both.

Posted by: jerobi

Don't expect to see Cathy back on JW. She created both JW and this new FMC show and has already said that she's bored with JW and wants to move on.

FMC looks great. One of the more interesting rules is that they will destroy the vehicles at the end of the show/season, which is a good way of warding off slackers that might use lots of prefab parts.

IE, a Surburban with a roll cage and a plow.

Posted by: kazymyr

FWIW, I forced a call this morning, but still no FMC data. :( I'm getting bored with JW, although I'll probably watch the next one: railroad racers. Anything that includes a steam engine gets me interested. :)

Posted by: r00g

Wow, what in the world is Henry Rollins doing hosting a TV show? I mean, he is great and funny and talented and all, but this is a bit of a leap...I just SP'd to find out. Thanks for the heads up Otto.

Posted by: Otto

It's in my guide data now.

Posted by: kazymyr

Yeah, mine too. Can't wait. :)

Oh, and no steam engine in JW. I haven't watched it all, but one team's gone electric, the other internal combustion. Pity. :(

Posted by: ADent

Speaking of TLC shows - anybody see the PanicMechanics clone on Discovery? What's it called? Why put it on Dsiscovery instead of TLC?

(PM (original UK edition) was shown on TLC this summer for about 3 weeks)

Posted by: blueshoo

Most excellent. Puts US JW to shame.

Posted by: Otto

Quite good, in fact. I hope they have some different challenges though.

Posted by: Jonathan_S

Well, looking at the preview of next weeks teams, it looks like the rollercoaster will be the only challange to be repeated. Although I wouldn't be surprised if they reuse Sumo as the final fight, as it is the only challange (we've seen) where it is a direct (i.e. not scored) knock out fight.

Posted by: barclay

I really enjoyed it too. I thought the driving by the American team on the "roller coaster" challenge was incredible.

Hopefully they'll do different challenges. From the previews, it looked like next week they'll only be changing the "hit the blinking posts" challenge.

(Oh, and new Junkyard wars coming too! I didn't know about that)

Posted by: loopey

Damn I forgot to setup a recording. I'll catch it next week.

Posted by: barclay

If you setup the Season Pass now, you'll still catch the first episode:

Sun, Oct. 20, 2002 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. ET/PT
Wed, Oct. 23, 2002 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET/PT
Sun, Oct. 27, 2002 5 p.m. ET/PT

Posted by: blueshoo

They showed different challenge(s) in the previews, and the aerial shots show an area with a bunch of cone-shaped hills, which I'd assume is the grounds for another challenge. (Just checked the website, and that one's called King of the Hill) According to the website, there are 9 different ones: http://tlc.discovery.com/fansites/f...tion/games.html

And the new JW's are actually the UK version.. Was hoping it'd be the case (after seeing Robert Llewellyn in the promo), since the US JW's have been FFwd fodder for all but the challenge. http://tlc.discovery.com/fansites/j...d/junkyard.html

Posted by: Yellowfin

Anyone else notice that Cathy Rodgers has had some plastic surgery...gotta love the improvements!

Sexist, as ever,

JK

Posted by: ClutchBrake

Cool. WAY better than the American Junkyard Wars.

Posted by: harvscar

I do hope they get rid of the furnace bit. The effects are cheesy and it doesn't really serve any purpose.

Posted by: Cletus

Great news - JW will be the British version. Although it does seem they'll have challenges chalked up after the US season. Still RL will make for a nice change. And for some reason I always liked the UK teams better. <spoiler> Although they lost in FMC. </spoiler> :)

<double spoiler> Who'd have thought the smallest car can win a shoving contest? :D </double spoiler>

Posted by: Worf

AH CRAP!

My TiVo decided to malfunction. I had it all scheduled in my TiVo, too, and the tuner lock was lost (I turned it on this evening and I was shown the "No Signal" screen).

I could change the channels and get 5 seconds of show (so I caught oh, 5 seconds of the show that showed before it...), but TiVo didn't record anything else. Damn! Curse this inferno machine with which TV watching is finally bearable!

(BTW, a reboot fixed it, but I'm getting worried - it wasn't the first time it was doing it - I lost JAG a couple of weeks ago).

So was it good? C'mon, I want spoilers!

Posted by: ClutchBrake

quote:
Originally posted by Worf
So was it good? C'mon, I want spoilers!

Don't want to spoil it, you can catch several replays this week:

Sun, Oct. 20, 2002 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. ET/PT
Wed, Oct. 23, 2002 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET/PT
Sun, Oct. 27, 2002 5 p.m. ET/PT

I did find myself FF'ing through some of the interviews. They couldn't ask a whole lot of detailed questions because they had to talk to one team through a translator.

Posted by: jerobi

Not bad, not bad.

-I like the overall premise with the $3,000 and the unknown challenges.
-That male co-host (Henry Rollins? Names escape me) needs to tone it down on his "Let's play XXXXXX..../scoul/"
-Nice lineup of the first 3 challenges
-Good finale idea, but can they loosen up on the water-soaked surfaces? It's no fun when no one can get decent traction
-How about that SET?! Talk about production costs...I hope they get their moneys' worth on this. Looks great though.
-Show us the fate of the 3rd place vehicle. No cheap 1960s special effects, please.

Oh, and don't forget to tape the one-shot episode of Hard Hat Challenge on TLC. Two teams of regular people pilot constuction equipment in challenges. Also give Panic Mechanics a look if you're into this recent trend in Metal-Based Competition.

Posted by: Otto

Henry Rollins? Tone it down? Bwahahahahaha! Obviously you're not a HR fan. :D

Agree with the traction comment. They need to lighten up on the soaked ground crap and have them able to haul some arse.

The set is the same disused power plant that was in an early episode of JW, I think. Maybe I'm mistaken, but it looked the same to me.

And that crappy effect on destroying the vehicle annoyed me too. I'm betting it wasn't destroyed for use later in the series. Like a battle royale kind of deal. Could be...

Posted by: harvscar

I'm pretty sure it's the same plant from the JW episode where the buildings were demolished, good multitasking.

HR needs to share some of his poetry between beatings, he and Cathy work well together though.

That furnace "blowup" effect was straight out of Dr. Who. :p

The English design seemed like a really bad idea, IMO but I was surprised at how well the Pumas did.

Posted by: ClutchBrake

I agree that the whole spraying water to kill traction sucks. My only guess is that they are doing it because of liability issues. Could you imagine the force of the blow the Desert Puma would have taken had the monster American vehicle gotten traction during bumper cars?

Posted by: jerobi

Yeah, it would been a huge blow...but it's not like the surfaces in that finale zone really allowed for much traction to begin with...

I'm far too lazy to check facts at the moment, but didn't they claim that the loser on each episode would be utterly demolished? I swear I read something to that effect. It was intended to disuade people from doing something like taking a Surburban and putting a ram on it.

Posted by: Worf

quote:
Originally posted by ClutchBrake
Don't want to spoil it, you can catch several replays this week:

Sun, Oct. 20, 2002 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. ET/PT
Wed, Oct. 23, 2002 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET/PT
Sun, Oct. 27, 2002 5 p.m. ET/PT

Hey, great, thanks! Checked TiVo, and it appears to be working fine... (I think TiVo does this to annoy me because I don't watch too much TV... or TiVo).

Posted by: zaknafein

I liked it a lot. I think the male host did a good job. He's no Robert LLewellyn, (sp?) but he beats the pants off of Tyler.

10 Pin was cool. It was funny to see the Pumas go out there and wipe the floor, making it look effortless. Then the Brits and Americans come out and can't hit a pin to save themselves.

Posted by: jasoncarr

quote:
Originally posted by r00g
Wow, what in the world is Henry Rollins doing hosting a TV show? I mean, he is great and funny and talented and all, but this is a bit of a leap...

Maybe he needs the $$$.

I think he's much more effective in his normal speaking voice than when he's doing the "I'm so aggressive I have to shout" routine.

He *is* aggressive, and there's no reason to overdo it. Painting the lily or whatever.

Posted by: MarkofT

Not a bad show Sunday. 'tho it does seem that the Brits have a bit of a thing for those dumb little dumper trucks.

Also wasn't happy with either the Americans or the Aussies. They both made mistakes in the last two events but the Americans made their mistake last.

The Aussies didn't need to block off the radiator and drive backwards. The reason you need to keep going in a water crossing is that the water doesn't flow through the radiator as fast as the air would so you can build up kind of a bow wake and it keeps the engine bay dry. Driving backwards doesn't let that wake build up so the point of keeping going is lost entirely.

Then the Americans decide to get in front of the Aussies and push? They must not have learned anything in the soccer game. I was expecting them to just turn 90 degrees into the Aussies and push. Also the driver could have save it if he hadn't hit the gas when they started climbing the Aussie's car. He was off center and only one track had grip. So it continued to climb up and the other side didn't. Thus they flop over on their side.

Anyone wanna place bets that the Brits on the next show start off with some wierd piece of machinery and lose again?

Posted by: Airlie

I was hoping to see that track machine more. It was suprisingly speedy.

Posted by: Haps

Yeah I saw it at first and said that sucks. But then the track machine took off at the bowling pins and I said wow. But I have to admit I was cheering for the Aussies.. I liked their car and it's kinda nice to have an all female team proceed in the challenge.

Posted by: betamax

That track machine was awsome. The driver's going to have a tough time living down that loss. And he lost to a girl!

Posted by: dcheesi

Yeah, major tactical blunder in the sumo. First he tried to back up way too far, to the point where he couldn't afford to back off when she hit him. Maybe he was tying to get room to steer around to her flank, but if so it obviously didn't work.

Of course, I also think it's lame to end the game because he flipped over. In cases where the vehicle is actually damaged and in need of repair, it makes sense; but just a temporary setback like flipping shouldn't mean more than a loss in the first round, IMHO.

Posted by: Jonathan_S

Sumo is instant elimination, a loss at any round is it, you are out. The rounds are just a way to shrink the ring and make it harding if no-one has succeded in pushing the other out of the ring.
But since flipping wasn't perminate, I think that the Aussies should have had the rest of the 2 min to try to push the vehicle out of the ring. If they hadn't succeded, it should have been righted and placed back in the center for round 2.

If the hosts were worried about injury to the driver if the vehicle was rammed from the bottom, they could have pulled him out, and then paused the match and allowed him back into the vehicle if it ended up upright.

As an aside:
Its not clear what would happen if in round 3 no-one was pushed outside in the 2 min. There have been two contriditory statements made, "rounds last 2 min and the arena get a ring smaller every round" and "Sumo continues until someone is pushed out or disabled". Unlikely that they would allow a tie, I'd guess that either round 3 would run as long as required; or they would add additional two min rounds without shrinking the ring...

Posted by: dcheesi

Interesting, I hadn't realized that. Of course, every game I've seen has ended with a first-round incapacitation anyway.

Perhaps they never had to go more than 3 rounds this season, so they didn't bother to firm up the rules for that case. In theory, they could always shrink it one more ring, to that inner black ring. You'd be sure to get a push out then.

Posted by: Jonathan_S

Also, they don't bother to fully list all the rules before a game, at least not to the audience.
Remeber in the 2nd episode, the first time they played pitball and the team hit the ball out, but ran over the lip of the arena? Before that happened Cathy hadn't mentioned that the contestants needed to stay behind the crest for the goal to count, the audience only heard about the rule after it was relivant. I assume that the drivers knew, but thats an assumption.

There is probably a plan for what happens if Sumo goes three rounds, just not one they feel they need to spell out for the audience.

Posted by: Otto

The only thing I thought was weak was that they gave them grief about being too aggressive in the pit. Laaaaame...

I mean, we want CARNAGE! That safety nonsense is stupid. :p

Posted by: jerobi

quote:
Also, they don't bother to fully list all the rules before a game, at least not to the audience.

Reminds me of Slamball (which I can't believe stayed on the air long enough to finish a season). My brother and I cracked jokes all over the first episode, where they spent an hour explaining the rules every time one was broken...it was like CalvinBall: we had no idea what was going on until someone told us that "X when Y" was a foul.